So, I recently used the Online Letting Agent lettingaproperty.com to market my vacant BTL property to assist in finding tenants. And now, inevitably, I want to gossip like a little school girl and share my experience, because sharing is caring!

Letting A Property (sidenote, I never know whether I should call them ‘Letting A Property, ‘LettingAProperty’, ‘LAP’ or ‘LettingAProperty.com’… or what? What’s the deal? Anyways…I digress) is one of those websites that will take your property details and market it across the UK’s biggest property portals like Rightmove, FindAProperty, Primelocation, Zoopla etc. in order to maximise exposure for the purpose of generating tenant enquiries. Sweet!

In my opinion, using a service like Letting A Property, or similar (there are a shit-tonne out there, many of which I have used), is the best way of finding tenants in terms of efficiency and value! However, with so many online agents sprouting up all over the shop, we’re left with a dilemma… which online agent is the best? From my experience, many of the top online agents provide great service and value, and you’ll do just fine picking any one of them. So the gazillion dollar question is, is letting a property one of the top? You’ll see.

My thoughts and experience with LettingAProperty.com

I agreed to give lettingaproperty.com a ‘complimentary’ spin on the basis that I was allowed to share an open and honest review, even if that entails pulling their website and service apart and dragging their good name through a sweltering pitt of diarrhea. Basically, I wanted the assurance of no legal comeback regardless of the content in my feedback. I’m sick of asshole companies dishing out ‘Take down’ notices on the basis of defamation, when all I’m trying to do is provide an honest review. In any case, I was pleased to hear the Director, Jonathan Daines, was more than happy to oblige to my condition. Ballsy decision, Mr Daines.

I wonder if he’s actually read any of my other reviews (a few of which lead to me being threatened with legal action)? Either way… too late, no takesy-backsies!!!

Did I find tenants with their service?

Let’s cut a long story short… and then you can decide if you want to continue reading the rest of my drivel…

Yes, I certainly did find tenants with LAP. I found suitable candidates with in 2 weeks of the advert going live. Not bad going. I was pleased.

How many enquiries did I receive?

I received 17 enquiries in exactly 1 month. I think that’s pretty good. I certainly received a healthy amount of interest.

Granted, a few of the applicants weren’t suitable (which became apparent after referencing), so I never considered them all to be enquiries of any significant value. However, that’s no reflection on LAP’s service, because you’re ALWAYS going to get time-wasters and inadequate-donkeys applying. That’s part of the bizz.

I personally tried the “Find a tenant” package, being a relatively experienced landlord myself this was more than suitable for the level of service I required. All I really cared about was shoving my vacant property on Rightmove & Zoopla in order to receive the enquiries. A buttload of them.

In my opinion, that should be the biggest priority for all landlords when looking for tenants – to get their crib onto Rightmove and Zoopla.

If anyone else is interested in the “Find a Tenant” package, Lettingaproperty.com are currently offering my readers’ a special £10 DISCOUNT CODE. The normal price is £149 (VAT included), but you can get it for £139 (VAT included). Enjoy!

Need more than just advertising your property?

For the less experienced landlords, or for those wanting a little more hand-holding beyond the basic tenant-find services, your eyes are probably prying over the more comprehensive “Guaranteed Rent” and “Rent on Time” packages available- and I don’t blame you. They look like excellent packages (and I’m not just saying that), which take a lot of the heavy-lifting and stress away from landlords that want extra assurances and rent guarantees in place.

From what I’ve seen, LettingAproperty.com offers, by far, the best solution for landlords looking for the most robust management solutions, which includes full management, rent collection, rent guarantee, and home emergency cover!

Why is Letting A Property comparatively expensive?

If you’ve been doing your research (which you should ALL be doing) and scoured through the list of my recommended Online letting Agents you’ll notice the freakishly large elephant in the room. That is, LAP’s comparative basic ‘Tenant find’ package (the Bronze one) is more expensive than every other online agent’s basic ‘Tenant find’ service. The cheapest is currently £29, so there’s a huge gap! What are LAP bloody playing at, right?

Have I used other online agents for less and found tenants?YesHave I been pleased with other cheaper online agents?YesHave I used the OpenRent, the £29 online agent and found tenants?Yes

Oh. So should I use LAP?

There’s a two-fold answer to this question.

Firstly, after much contemplation and reflection… do you know what I realised? Even though I have used cheaper agents and received positive experiences, I didn’t feel ripped off (ignore the fact I didn’t pay for for the service in the first place). I mean, I received, felt and saw the value in their service. I realised that’s the main thing. I guess other landlords feel the same too, because LAP were among the first to emerge in this ever-growing and competitive sector, and they appear to be going strong, despite the Rolls-Royce pricetag.

So my point is, even though LAP is comparatively more expensive, I didn’t at any point feel like they were under or over charging. I felt like their price-tag reflected in the service and value they provided.

You do actually receive a recognisably smooth and complete service with LAP. It was pretty obvious that they have invested heavily in user-experience…

Now, the second aspect to the answer; I’ll just directly quote the Big Cheese, Jonathan:

…in comparison to other cheaper sites, we are more expensive…in terms of competing with all the services a high street agent offers, we are considerably cheaper with our Gold (Rent Guarantee) and Platinum (Rent on Time) packages. We really are not trying to compete with other online letting sites…

Basically, their core interest isn’t vested in shifting their quick tenant-find bronze package, but rather, to provide a much more elaborate and managed service to those landlords that are looking for a cost-effective package comparable to a fully managed high-street service.

I get it!

What I liked about Letting A Property

It works
Obviously, the service worked. After loading my property onto the Letting A Property website, my advert was exported to hundreds of property portals with in 24 hours. I received plenty of enquiries, and I found suitable tenants.

Tenant referencing
Their tenant referencing service was decent, and unlike many of the other agents, it was included with the package, so I didn’t have to pay any additional fees, neither to landlord or tenant.

They carried out comprehensive checks including a 6 year credit check, CCJs, an employment reference and referenced a previous landlord.

Enquiry notification
Every time an enquiry came through, I got an email and a text message. I liked that.

The information provided in the enquiry emails were quite useful. They included:

Tenants name

Tenants Contact Number

Tenants Email Address

Tenants Employment status

Details of whether they have pets

When the tenant is looking to move

Preferred viewing time for tenant

Best time to call tenant

I thought that was all pretty useful because in some cases there was enough information to tell me whether the applicant was suitable or not, even before contacting them and/or giving them the opportunity to view the property. Avoids a lot of time-wasting.

Customer Service
I had a personal customer service rep that was always informative and contactable (this makes a big difference). Oh, BIG shout out to my rep, Thomas. He was always friendly and useful! He actually contacted me on a regular basis, I didn’t have to contact him. That was cool shit.

Enquiry handling
Another feature I liked about Letting A Property is that they handle all the calls from a call centre, and then send the applicants details to the landlord in an email. That way I knew the tenants credentials beforehand, and it allowed me to contact them in my own time. Other services I’ve used attach a unique 0845 number to the adverts that got redirected to my mobile, which meant I had received and handled all the calls. That also meant I had no information on the prospective tenant calling. Personally, I prefer the email method. Obviously, some landlords may prefer getting the calls direct. So this is more of a personal preference of mine, as opposed to a “positive”. Going forward, maybe the landlord should have the choice of how they want to receive their leads. That would be a neat feature.

24 hour Appointment line
This is pretty self-explanatory, but it’s a good feature. Prospective tenants can make appointments during any time. This also continues from my previous point, landlords won’t receive calls at ungodly or inappropriate times, because they’ll always go to the call centre.

LAP listened to my complaints
I don’t expect any service to be perfect or infallible. Improvements can always be made to any system. What gets on my tits is when you raise legitimate and logical flaws, only for them to be ignored.

I noticed a few problems during my experience, and they’re issues I raised with LAP immediately.

I don’t know if LAP paid extra attention to my complaints because they knew I was going to blog about it, or whether they genuinely listen to all their customers. I’ve had a few discussions with Jonathan Daines, and my gut tells me he genuinely cares about all his customers, but that’s just speculation. For all I know, he could use the slips in the suggestion box as toilet paper.

Anyways, my point is, I raised a few things I didn’t like about the system:

All the phonecalls from their support was from a ‘unknown number’ – I didn’t like that at all, and I suspect many of you don’t either! I’m genuinely scared when I see “Unknown number” flash up on my mobile, consequently I rarely answer them. No one in the history of mankind has ever called from a withheld number carrying good news.

I couldn’t ‘pause’ my advert, which was pretty surprising! At one point I wanted to pause my advert to prevent further enquiries, but I wanted the ability to re-enable my advert just in case the deal I had on the table with a prospective tenant fell through (which frequently happens in this game). This feature is imperative for every self-respecting landlord!

So while these are all negatives, I still listed them under the ‘What I liked about Letting A Property’ section. Why? Because shortly after raising these issues, they were resolved. To me, that’s a sign of a company that listens!

Would I recommend Letting A Property?

Yes. For sure.

By any landlord’s standards, receiving a good service with outstanding customer support and finding a tenant for £149… can’t complain. It really is chump-change compared to the prices high-street agents charge for practically the same service.

Letting A Property’s slogan actually states that they’re “The UK’s No1 Online Letting Agents” – would I agree with that? I honestly can’t answer that, not because I’m saying they’re not, but because I’ve used other agents for less, which also provided value! Operate word being “value”

Thanks for the ride

I’d like to give a big thank you to Letting A Property for giving me the opportunity to try out their service. I’d especially like to thank the Managing Director, Jonathan Daines, and my customer service rep, Thomas Foley, for all his assistance. We had a good thing going on.

Has anyone used Letting A Property or any other similar service?

If anyone has used any other service like Letting A Property, or even Letting A Property itself, please tell me how it worked for you. Additionally, if you have any suggestions on how to improve Letting A Property’s service, or these types of services in general, I encourage you to speak up!

By the way, does anyone plan on using a website like Letting A Property in the future?

Disclaimer

I’d just to clarify, just because Letting A Property worked for me by generating enquiries, it doesn’t mean it will work for everyone!!

If anyone has any questions about Letting A Property or any of other websites that offer the service, fire away!

7 Comments- Join The Conversation...

A bit disappointed your HPC mates haven't complained yet. By utilising capitalist advertising, you're exploiting the proletariat, thereby depriving Bev and Kev of the 4 bed exec detached they so richly deserve.
Have you no soul?

Up the Revolution brother!

1

mark22nd September, 2011 @ 09:59

have you any experiance of letting to immigrants /bad or good

very good, great site,missed you over last few years,some how
keep it up
regards
mark

2

Matt Harlock3rd February, 2015 @ 01:42

Hey - love the site, wish I'd found your deals before signing up, but anyhoo - love the way its written (yes, swearing and real 'no-nonsense language', plus the odd gag - hey!) and seems to come from someone who genuinely cares about sharing experiences and helping others - either that, or has just managed to find the perfect tone to fool us into thinking that while he is getting fat off dem big sponsorship deals, who knows?
Keep up the good rent,
cheers!
Matt (new landlord)

3

Amanda Hopkins19th March, 2015 @ 14:40

Hugely helpful, this, and I'm absolutely with you on withheld numbers. I won't answer them, full stop, as from experience they are usually about mis-sold PPI or some other rubbish. Anything that can be done in writing (via email) is vastly preferable anyway, as there's both a document trail and an opportunity to settle down with the information at a time that suits…

4

JEG21st April, 2017 @ 17:54

I have let a property as single rooms, but now want to let the whole house, which seems to be a completely different thing. Am comparing the different on line sites as I believe in doing things myself, so your advice has been very useful. Thanks very much. What I really want is LAP bronze but with the Tenant referencing and credit check.

5

The Landlord21st April, 2017 @ 18:34

@JEG
You're welcome, glad it's been useful.

LAP bronze includes referencing :)

Please let me know how you get on with LAP (if you use end up using them).

6

C.W27th April, 2017 @ 08:08

I recently purchased their premium package. Admittedly I was a bit reluctant as I had never used an online agent before and I always assumed they provide little support to landlords after finding tenants, but I have been thoroughly impressed. So much better and cheaper than the local agents I used to use. I've clearly been wasting money for years :(

A little introduction...

I initially started this blog because I wanted to document my every step to becoming a BTL landlord,
in hope that others' (with more experience) would discover my dronings and have the heart to help me - a beetle on its back - along the way. I literally didn't have a clue about being a landlord
when I started this website.

Having expanded my property portfolio over the years, I now occassionally blog about my bitter life as a Landlord, so fellow Landlords (prospective, new, and seasoned) can learn from my few successes and frequent failures.

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